Process documentation of the Writeshop at KILA from 8.7.15 to 13.7.15 to develop

Guidelines for participatory planning for GP Development Plans in the context of the

14th Finance Commission Grant

1. Aim: To develop:

a. State-specific guidelines for participatory planning by Gram Panchayats in the

context of the 14th Finance Commission grant

b. A training strategy for Gram Panchayats as per the above guidelines.

2. Dates: 8 - 13 July 2015

3. Venue: Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), Thrissur, Kerala

4. Participants: State teams that led and oversaw the process of planning in the context

of the 14th FC grant were to participate in the workshop. The States had agreed to set

up FFC resource teams to develop necessary system support for implementation of the

FFC award in the State. These teams were required to attend for the entire duration of

the Writeshop. States were divided into big, medium and small, and the number of

participants from each category was to be 5, 4 and 3 respectively, and a total of around

120 participants from States. States may be asked to select experts from MGNREGA

and NRLM to be part of the State resource team, as planning for these programmes can

also be facilitated through this process. The concerned SIRD faculty were also required

to participate in the Writeshop.

Ultimately participants from 27 states (all the Part IX states except Manipur and 2

Schedule VI states – Mizoram and Nagaland) participated in the Writeshop. State wise

list of participants is given as Annexure-I.

5. Resource persons: National resource group was set up to facilitate the workshop.

Many of the resource persons were from among those who had been involved in the

planning process for decentralised governance in Kerala. Additionally people from civil

society organisations, MGNREGS and NRLM were also invited as resource persons to

the Writeshop in view of their experience with rural issues and participatory

development processes. Resource persons from NIRD&PR, SIRDs and KILA were also

roped in. A one day meeting of resource persons was organised on 23.6.2015 to come

to a common understanding about the workshop and the role of resource persons

therein.

Names of resource persons:

1. Dr. M N Roy

2. Shri Dilip Pal (S pl. Secretary, West Bengal)

3. V.N Jithendran (Director, Social Justice, Kerala) – unable to attend on account of

illness

4. Sandeep Tambe (Director MGNREGS, Sikkim) – unable to attend on account of

transfer

5. Dr P.V.Unnikrishnan (Professor, TISS)

6. Dr Joy Elamon (Intercorp)

7. N. Jagajeevan ( Social Security Mission)

8. Liby Johnson (NRO Kudumbashree)

9. Nirmala Sanu (DFID)

10. Sahiruddeen (rtd JDC, SIRD, Kerala)

11. Manik Dive (PO convergence, Maharashtra SRLM) – attended on last 2 days

12. N. Narendranath (PRADAN)

13. Sonali Srivastava (Head, Decentralised Planning, Avantika foundation – first 2

days)

14. Anita Gurumurthy (Director, IT for Change) represented by Nandini for the first 2

days

15. J. B Rajan (KILA)

16. Dr. P. Jayalekshmi (NIRD&PR)

17. Dr. Surya Narayana Reddy (NIRD&PR)

18. Dr Anita Brandon (SIRD Rajasthan)

19. Subrat Kumar Mishra (SIRD Odisha)

20. Manas (MGNREGS consultant, MoRD)

21. Dhruv Sengupta (NRLM)

22. Philip KM (NRLM)

23. Manu Shanker (NRO, Kudumbashree)

24. Sushma (NRO Kudumbashree)

25. Ashraf (NRO Kudumbashree)

26. (NRO Kudumbashree)

27. Shibabrata Kar (UNDP SCPRI)

28. Kiran Jyoti (UNDP SCPRI)

29. Rishu Garg (UNDP SCPRI)

30. Rajesh Sinha (UNDP SCPRI)

31. Krishanu Bhattacharya (UNDP SCPRI)

Officers who participated in the Writeshop from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj included

1. SPR

2. AS RSS

3. JS SM

4. JS NS

5. Dilip Kumar , Dir IFD

6. Jaswinder Singh US IFD

7. Debashish Pal DS

8. Shivakumar US

9. Puneet Sharma US

10. Abhay Garg SO

Total number of participants, excluding senior officers of MoPR was 172.

6. Resource material

It was decided to make the following material available to the participants for the

writeshop –

For all participants:

1. Toolkit on Writeshop

2. Schedule (Part of Toolkit)

3. GP profiles

4. Hard copy of ppt of SPR on participatory planning

For each State :

1 12th FYP Plan Formulation LSGD Kerala

2 12th FYP Kerala-Subsidy LSGD Kerala

3 12th FYP Kerala-Project Forms LSGD Kerala

4 12th FYP Kerala-Plan approval LSGD Kerala

5 11th FYP Kerala Plan Formulation LSGD Kerala

6 District Planning Guideline Planning Commission of India

7 V Ramachandran Report Planning At the Gross Root

Level

8 S M Vijayanand Classical Decentralization KILA

9 SAGY Guidelines Ministry of Rural

Development

10 SAGY_Village Development Plan Sahyadri E - News

11 SAGY Training Module Final Ministry of Rural

Development

12 Participatory Identification of Poor

-

13 Participatory Rural Appraisal Vikas Publishing

14 WriteShop Toolkit Ministry of Panchayati Raj

15 S M Vijayananda PPT Writeshop Ministry of Panchayati Raj

16 11th five year english SDC Cap Deck

17 Decentralisation SDC Cap Deck

18 Emerging issues CSES / CRM / SDC Cap Deck

19 Gender in Panchayati raj Sakhi Women.s Resource

Centre

20 GPK manual-agriculture Karakulam GP

21 GPK manual-ayurvedam Karakulam GP

22 GPK educational institutions ayurvedam Karakulam GP

23 GPK manual-engineering Karakulam GP

24 GPK manual-panchayat Karakulam GP

25 GPK manual-primary health Karakulam GP

26 GPK manual-vetenary Karakulam GP

27 Gramasabha English SDC Cap Deck

28 Gramasabha Malayalalm SDC Cap Deck

29 Jagratha Samithi SDC Cap Deck

30 Managing Disasters Trust For Village Self

Governance

31 Panchayats and Protection of the

Environment

MAITHRI

32 Emerging voices Sakhi Womens Resource

Centre

7. Methodology: Participants were oriented to concepts and methods of decentralized

participatory planning by SPR, followed by detailed discussion on the various

activities pertinent to participatory planning and plan approval. They further

undertook field visits to Gram Panchayats to see the process of planning followed.

Participants then developed generic guidelines for participatory planning over 3 days

of the Writeshop, after a strategy setting exercise. The last activity was to develop the

capacity building strategy for the State to operationalise the GP development Plan,

and project requirements. States also discussed their key takeaways from the

Writeshop and suggested activities to be undertaken at their end and at the level of the

Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Preparatory work:

1. By the Ministry

SPR interactions with top bureaucratic and political leadership of 24

states on the possibilities of the GP development plan

Discussions with MoF on FFC and GP development Plans

Letters sent to State Governments

Toolkit prepared touching on Writeshop methodology, Activities for

the GP Plan and template and note for GP visits, FFC guidelines etc

Schedule drawn up and finalised

Resource material for the writeshop identified and KILA entrusted to

source information

Videoconference held with participating States on finalising participant

lists, updation of resource envelope exercises and preparation of

introductory chapter to the guidelines

Videoconference and follow up with KILA on the GP visit modalities

and overall arrangements for the Writeshop

2. By KILA

Visit to identified GPs, profile of GPs

Workshop with GP Presidents, Secretary and other stakeholders on

organisation of GP visit

Transport and accommodation arrangements for participants

Catering arrangements

Venue arrangements

Setting up of support faculty team for the Writeshop

Preparation/printing of resource material for the Writeshop

Preparation of participant kits and State kits for the Writeshop

3. By NRO Kudumbashree

Layout and design of tool kit

NRG discussions

The NRG were required to be present on the day before the commencement of the

Writeshop and the specific groups touching on each area to be expounded before the

participants had break out sessions for strategy setting on how the subjects were to be

broached. The specific groups were :

1. Group on Resource envelope and system support

i. Neerja Sekhar

ii. Sahiruddeen

iii. JB Rajan

iv. Puneet Sharma

v. S.K. Biju

vi. D. Sanky

2. Group on Environment generation, participatory planning and envisioning

exercises

i. Dr P.V. Unnikrishnan

ii. Dr Joy Elamon

iii. Dr. Jos Chathukulam

iv. D.K.Pal

v. Nirmala Sanu

vi. N. Jagajeevan

vii. Liby Johnson

viii. N. Narendranath

ix. Sonali Srivastatva

x. Nandini

xi. Dhruv Sengupta

3. Group on GP Plan development and approval

i. Sarada Muraleedharan

ii. Jagajeevan

iii. Nirmala Sanu

iv. Philip Mathew

v. AVG Ramachandran

vi. K.J Kurien

4. Group on Capacity building

i. Rashmi Shukla Sharma

ii. Anita Brandon

iii. K. Jayalakshmi

iv. Surya Narayana Reddy

v. Subrat Kumar Mishra

vi. J.B Rajan

The resource envelope, plan development and capacity building group opted for an

interactive session based on probable questions that would be relevant to the topic,

while the group on participatory planning broke into technical sub sessions, and opted

for a combination of presentations and discussions.

Proceedings of the Writeshop

Day 1 - 9.7.2015

a. Concept setting

The Secretary Ministry of Panchayati Raj gave the introductory lecture on

preparation of gram panchayat development plan converging resources over

which the gram panchayat has command. His presentation covered the following

The fourteenth finance commission award

background of grassroots planning

the nature of local development plans

the rationale for GP level planning from policy, State, GP and Citizen

points of view

Initiation of the planning process and environment generation

Fixing the resource envelope and the planning unit (GP/ cluster of GPs

etc)

Support arrangements including use of technology

Processes of GP Planning, including setting up of task forces, data

management, situation analysis, covering various sectors

human development, social justice, poverty, infrastructure, water

supply, sanitation and delivery of other services

visioning and strategy setting exercises with 5 year perspective

Projectisation and due process of approval, documentation as plan

Vetting and approval, disclosures and dissemination

Focus on costless development

Content of a GP Development Plan

Convergence with MGNREGS, SBA, housing, NRLM

Development of poverty reduction plan

Implementation support

Accountability and other systems

Human resource and capacity building for planning

Need for action plan for operationalising decentralised planning

b. Detailed discussion on GP Development Plan components

After the introduction to the writeshop methodology, the States were split into 2 groups, each

of which was given inputs on the 4 broad areas mentioned below:

1. Resource envelope and system support

2. Environment generation, participatory planning and envisioning exercises

3. GP Plan development and approval

4. Capacity building

The States were split into two groups on the basis of extent of HR availability in the Gram

panchayats. The 2 groups were :

Group I Group II

1. Kerala 1. Andhra Pradesh

2. Karnataka 2. Arunachal Pradesh

3. Tamil Nadu 3. Bihar

4. West Bengal 4. Haryana

5. Maharashtra 5. Himachal Pradesh

6. Gujarat 6. Jammu and Kashmir

7. Madhya Pradesh 7. Mizoram

8. Chhattisgarh 8. Nagaland

9. Odisha 9. Telengana

10. Rajasthan 10. Uttar Pradesh

11. Assam 11. Uttarakhand

12. Tripura 12. Jharkhand

13. Sikkim 13. Punjab

14. Goa

The group sessions were organised in such a manner that the resource envelope and

participatory plannings followed one upon the other, and the projectisation and capacity

building discussions were held simultaneously.

The purpose of the group sessions was to familiarise participant States to the steps required to

be undertaken in the participatory planning exercise, and the need to elaborate and

contextualise to the State scenario. Broadly the steps are

1. Identifying resource envelope

2. Identifying GP mandate as per State Act and devolution – in respect of basic services

to be delivered

3. Clarifying role in identified CSS

4. Positioning HR for facilitation of exercise

5. Environment generation

6. Situation analysis

7. Visioning – stakeholder inputs including gram sabha

8. Need assessment

9. Stakeholder consultations on situation analysis and need assessment

10. Projectisation – multi sectoral task forces

11. Finalisation of development plan and validation in gram sabha

12. Vetting of plans

13. Plan approvals

14. Supplementary arrangements – technical approvals, fund flow etc

15. Supporting guidelines – Procurement, beneficiary selection etc

16. Capacity building for participatory planning –trainers, methodology of training,

transaction rounds etc

Due to the number of sub topics that were to be handled in participatory planning, the

sessions took longer than were scheduled, and the Capacity building session had to be

postponed in the case of Group II. The presentations made in these sessions are attached

as Resource envelope and Capacity Building presentation.

Day 2 was to be entirely devoted to gram panchayat visits, and preparatory arrangements

had been made by KILA. 13 Gram panchayats in Thrissur district had been selected for

the visit. The Director KILA and Dr J.B Rajan had visited all the GPs. A videoconference

had been held between JS SM and director KILA in which the agenda for the visit, the

different sessions and interactions that were required, the material that had to be prepared

etc were discussed. KILA then held a preparatory workshop with the Gram panchayat

presidents and secretaries to ensure that all the requisite people from among resource

persons and civil society, as well as all ERs and implementing officers of the panchayat

would be available for discussions, and that the presentations made by the GPs focused

on the processes of participatory planning. A brief profile of each Gram panchayat visited

was prepared by KILA in separate booklets provided to the visiting teams. (Annexure--)

States were allotted specific panchayats for visit so that there were around 10 persons per

GP. Resource persons were also distributed across the GPs such that KILA RPs and NRG

members were both available for every GP. The Resource group for the Writeshop met

after dinner to assess the day’s events and to discuss the modalities of the GP visit. All

participants had been given a note for the GP visit which touched on the objectives of the

visit, and provided a checklist of 32 indicators touching on

a. role of GPs in participatory planning

b. preparatory arrangements

c. participatory processes

d. plan formulation, projectisation and approvals

e. institutional mechanisms

A template for the GP visit which broke up the interactions into the following sessions,

indicating what were the aspects that needed to be gone into, had also been circulated.

Interactions were organised with the Panchayat committee, the local resource groups

who had been involved in the early day of the Peoples’ Plan, the working groups for

project formulation, the community bodies of the Kudumbashree and padasekhara

samitis, school management committees etc, the implementing officers and

functionaries of the panchayat and the Standing Committees. The NRG was briefed on

their role and the matters to focus on during the interaction. (The Note for GP visit and

the Visit template may be seen as attached.

Day 2 - 10.7.2015

The GP visits encompassed the entire day – the teams left KILA between 7.30am and

8.30am in the morning and returned between 6pm and 8pm in the evening. All the

participants availed of the opportunity and interactions to clarify issues, understand

challenges and appreciate practical solutions. They also took time to interact with

community structures and understand their relevance and participation in planning for

local development. The NRG team had the daily debriefing as well as preparation for

the following day. It was decided that in the wake of the panchayat visit, the pending

CB session could be dispensed with. It was however felt that the participants needed to

have clarity on state specific aspects of the GPDP. Therefore instead of the format of

writing sessions followed by discussions that had been planned for the 3 days, it was

decided to first get the States to discuss their doable plans and the broad strategies that

could be adopted and share their strategies in the same groups of day 1. The template

for discussion was:

1. What is a doable Gram Panchayat development plan for the State?

– Basic services

– Poverty reduction etc.

2. How will you do need assessment for such a GP development Plan?

3. What will be your participatory planning processes?

– Tools, activities, HR support?

4. What is your technical support mechanism?

– For project development?

– For appraisal and approval?

It was also decided that rather than provide thematic inputs in respect of their specific

area of expertise, the NRG would take up specific states as smaller teams, and provide

support for the entire chapterisation work undertaken by the State teams. The states and

the members of the NRGs that facilitated them are indicated below:

Day 3 – 11.7.2015

The morning sessions were undertaken as parallel sessions as on day 1, with JS SM and

Dr. Unnikrishnan leading Group I and AS RSS and Dr. MN Roy leading Group II. The

NRG members sat with the State teams, while the States deliberated their strategy for

GP planning. After an hour and a half of discussions, state wise presentations were

made and feedback provided by other members and the NRG. Details of state specific

presentations can be seen within the State wise folders provided as State presentation.

The proper business of the ‘writeshop’ commenced from the afternoon of Day 3, as the

teams got down to discussing and detailing the action points for the various chapters of

the guidelines. The session on NRLM had to be cancelled due to the inability of the AS

MoRD to attend. A presentation was made by Dr. M.N Roy on resource envelope and

participatory planning , which may be seen as attachment of same name. A progress

sheet was prepared and put up inside the hall to enable the States to record the

completion of chapters. The time frame for completion of chapters was flexible,

although broad time frames were indicated, so that the states could know whether they

were on track. The teams went around states giving suggestions and feedback, and

clarifying specific doubts raised. Most of the teams worked on till past 8pm at night.

During the NRG meeting, it was further decided that the States would be requested to

prepare presentations on their capacity building strategy the following day rather than

keep it to day 5, on the lines of the strategy setting session the day before.

Day 4 - 12.7.2015

The forenoon session was taken up with the ongoing work of chapterisation. The

afternoon session began with a presentation on Plan Plus and the opportunity of using

it during the participatory planning exercise.

The post tea session was on Support Systems and Capacity building for GP

Development Plans. A format for discussion and presentation on systems and capacity

building was prepared and given to States, which may be seen as attachment of same

name. The discussion touched on who were to be covered under training for GPDP,

selection and CB of resource persons, infrastructure and logistics, monitoring and

quality assurance, and CB plans for the current year. The States were also given a

capability matrix to plot the requirement of GPDP Capacity building on the basis of the

work to be done at various levels and for various components.

In the NRG discussions, it was suggested that the final session could commence at 11

am, and that an interactive session which could capture key takeaways through flash

cards would be organised by Joy Elamon, followed by a valedictory session to be

structured in the following manner:

a. State views on the way forward

b. Follow up sought from the Ministry

c. Reflections on the Writeshop

d. Vote of Thanks.

Day 5 - 13.7.2015

The State teams continued with the preparation and fine tuning of the chapters of the

guidelines. The morning session was brought to a close by 12 noon. The status of

completion of the chapters as reported by the State teams was as follows:

No. of States that completed all chapters (12) : 20

No. of States that had completed over 80% of chapters (10 or more): 4

No. of States that had completed over 50 % (6 or more): 3 (Bihar, Kerala,

Uttarakhand)

The closing session began with the exercise on takeaways anchored by Joy Elamon. Some of

the key takeaways identified are listed below. The details may be seen at attachment of same

name.

i. Clarity in GP development planning

ii. Jab Jaago Tab Savera

iii. Inclusive planning

iv. Swaraj through local government

v. Planning systems linkage with line departments

vi. Framework for Village development Plan

The major recommendations by the States for the way forward, including their expectation

from the Ministry as made in the final session have been recounted below:

i. Chhattisgarh : create resource pool of participants; would like HR

support

ii. TN : Advisory on conditionalities to be introduced for participatory

planning; need support in creating enabling environment

iii. Punjab: MoPR to issue guidelines on how RGPSA can be utilised for

Capacity building

iv. MP: Just as line department acitivites are bing synchronised with

SAGY, similar synchronisation with GP DP needed; need

handholding of the State task force; May create Facebook/

WHATSAPP groups on participatory planning

v. WB : MoPR to issue comprehensive guidelines; GPDP to be made

mandatory

vi. Sikkim : Need handholding support; request MoPR to do proof

reading of GPDP draft

vii. Karnataka : Exposure visits to sites of participatory planning to be

made compulsory

viii. Odisha : DPRCs should be given funds; one more round of

discussions needed before finalisation

ix. Rajasthan : guidelines need to be cross verified

x. Bihar : Other Ministries and departments need to be made to

coordinate for the GP DP

xi. UP : Instructions may be issued to conduct State level workshops;

MoPR to take initiative for IEC interventions; how are

Administrative expenses of GPs in this regard to be met?; cells may

be set up at State, divisional and district levels

xii. Telengana : Apex meeting with states and top officials may be

organised by MoPR

xiii. AP : MoPR should constitute mini secretariat of all 29 subjects;

Operational guidelines may be issued to all States

xiv. Maharashtra : Need for TV campaign on GP DP; brand ambassador

needed; competition among states to be encouraged on GPDP;

National level RPs to be positioned; Provision for PMU and for

trainings to be incorporated into the RGPSA Plans

xv. Haryana : planning wing/cadre to be inducted in every State for GP

DP

AS RSS proceeded to give the Ministry’s response, saying that the suggestions would be

discussed in the Ministry and further action intimated. She then went on to thank all the

participants, and the NRG for the deliberations of the Writeshop and KILA for the

arrangements and support provided. The Writeshop came to formal closure by 2 pm on day 5.